In the manufacture of upholstered furniture, such as sofas, love seats, chairs, and similar items, it is desirable to manufacture and assemble the back rest portion so that the front of the back rest portion provides support to the back of the user. It is known to provide strips of webbing on the front of the back rest portion so that the webbing is attached to the top rail at one end and to the breast rail at the opposite end. While this method of manufacture provides sufficient support to the user, it is a time consuming process to install the webbing and uses an inordinate number of fasteners or staples.
Currently, the webbing is attached to a furniture frame prior to installing the upholstery sack over the furniture frame. One end of a webbing strip is attached to the top rail and the other end is attached to the breast rail using the staple and fold method. In this method, the first end of the webbing slightly overlaps the top rail and is attached to the front side of the top rail using two staples. Then, the overlapped portion of the webbing is brought down over the stapled webbing and is subsequently attached, using three staples, over the already stapled portion of the webbing resulting in the use of five staples to hold the end of the webbing to the top rail. The installer pulls the second end of the webbing to the front of the breast rail and pulls it taut. While holding the webbing under proper tension, the same staple and fold process is followed on the breast rail for the second end of the webbing, also resulting in the installation of five staples for the webbing end. In general, sofas can have nine webbings, with each webbing requiring at least ten staples, requiring a total of 90 staples on a standard back rest portion. After the webbing is attached, the upholstery sack is then positioned over the back rest portion and stapled into place using at least 80 or more staples thus completing the assembly of the back rest portion.
The above process of manufacturing the upholstered back rest is time consuming and costly since a number of parts must be assembled to construct the back rest and a large number of fasteners must be placed while correctly positioning and tensioning the webbing and then the upholstery sack. As such, there is a need for a simplified method for manufacturing upholstered furniture back rest portions that reduces labor and material costs while providing a product that provides a sufficient or improved level of support and comfort to the user.